Can You Motivate Your Team To Innovate?

Motivating teams is what I do for a living. This is absolutely a great job, as I get to be surrounded by amazing energy and people who always are eager to take the next step. As most of you know I do this with my team of chefs through interactive hands-on group cooking events which range from 45 minute “healthy cooking” lunches, to high-energy 1-hour Wok On, to the competitive 4-hour MasterChef Challenge.

Recently NETT magazine joined us for a team building event, and quizzed me on how to motivate people to innovate. Kate Hennessy interviewed me; I think she gets the gist of why food is so powerful a medium when it comes to motivating people. For teamwork, from peeling the prawns to washing up as you go the whole team needs to work together so no room for bad boy chefs if the team is to succeed. Then there are many aspects of the preparation and presentation of a meal (or a Mystery Box in our MasterChef Challenge) to inspire innovation. Finally of course, the team gets to eat their work – the best “feedback” on the team’s ability to work together to innovate. Let me know what you think.